


The Hermit's Home

by Hazuzu



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 16:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18973366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazuzu/pseuds/Hazuzu
Summary: Saori has been told that she's being sent to a private school, away from Gekkoukan and away from Minako. She's saying her farewells when Minako offers her another option: Living with her.





	The Hermit's Home

It should have been a good day. 

Minako had woken up to a bright blue sky. She and Fuuka had prepared a delicious new variant of omurice for the rest of SEES. She’s soared through her exams. Lunch with Mitsuru and Yukari, two of her favorite girls in the whole wide world. 

It should have been a good day.

But Saori’s hand was trembling in hers. 

“… Well then, I’m going to go.” Saori was smiling, but it didn’t reach her eyes. The rest of the students were filing out of the gates around them, but their voices may as well have been the buzzing of insects for all it mattered to Minako. “Thank you… Goodbye!” 

Saori loosened her grip and started to stride away. Her grip on Minakos’ hand got weaker and weaker until Minako squeezed it tightly.

“Minako?” Saori had walked passed her shoulder, standing just an arm’s length away. “You’ve still got my hand.”

“Yeah...” Minako scrunched her eyes to bury the tears, then turned to face her friend. Her smile was the one she always wore, when she had to help the people around her feel brave. “I don’t want to stop holding your hand. So, if it’s okay with you, I’m not going to.” 

“But… I really do have to catch the train.” Saori glanced over her shoulder. 

“Saori.” Minako covered the distance between them with a couple of steps. Saori blushed, just a little, the way she always did when Minako called her by her name. A little smile, a little joy in her eyes, at the reminder that there was somebody who cared enough to call her that.

“Minako...” Saori bit her lip. “I had a whole speech prepared and everything to make this easier.”

“Saori.” Minako stepped a little bit closer, so that their hands hung between them. The blush on Saori’s pale cheeks grew much pinker. 

“I-I don’t know what to say now…”

“Saori, Saori, Saori.” Minako leaned in and went on her tiptoes, so that there were almost nose-to-nose.

“M-Minako, what are yo-” Saori was interrupted by a kiss, one that sent her blush cascading down her neck and filled her nose with a sweet cherry scent. 

“I like holding your hand, and saying your name, and seeing you every day. I like it when we spend time together, and I like it when you shine with confidence, and I just discovered that I like it when we kiss,” Minako whispered. “And I’m really hoping that you like all of those things, too, because I don’t want you to go.”

“It… Oh...” Saori squeezed Minako’s hand, her grip shifting from the handshake to their fingers lacing together. “That is a very good reason to stay… I had no idea.” She lifted her other hand up to her lips, just a little touch of her fingertips to see if what she was feeling was real. “That wasn’t just to convince me to stay, was it?”

“Nope!” Minako brushed her thumb over the back of Saori’s hand. “Not just. It’s because you’re kind and smart and I could just eat you up. That’s why I kissed you. I don’t want you to go because you’re only just beginning to be the person you could be. You’re the strongest you’ve ever been, and your parents are trying to take all of that away. By sending you away. Again. And that just...” She took in a steadying breath. “It’s not fair.”

“But I don’t have a choice...”

“Yes, you do!” Minako had to reign in her own desperation, but she could barely hold back the tremor in her voice. A mix of righteous anger, despair and desperation. “You can come to Gekkoukan for as long as you like. One of my best friends owns the company that owns it! And we have our own dorm, where you can stay, if you want to.”

“You...” Saori was breathing heavily, her lips parted. “Kirijo-san, of course.”

“Yeah! And… All of that, you can have, whether you want to do the kissing thing or not.” Minako dared to hope, just a little, that she was getting through to Saori. “I don’t want to be the next person to order you around.”

“Perhaps… Perhaps I could take a look.” Saori let her eyes fall to their linked hands. “Would you be willing to show me soon?”

“We can go right now, if you want to.” 

“Then let’s do that.” Saori bowed her head to her friend. Not another second passed without a step, as Minako lead her through the throng of students with a fresh spring in her step. “Oh!” She hustled to keep up with her friend. “Oh, I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“You better believe it!” Minako laughed, a high and happy thing. It was the kind of hope that got her through every day. It would be harder than she said, she knew that. She’d have to convince Mitsuru, and the rest of the dorm, to let Saori stay, but she’d make it happen. 

“I’ll have to pack my things,” Saori mused aloud as they hustled hand-in-hand. “Will you come with me? I don’t know if I will be able to face my parents alone. And you’re so… Vibrant.”

“Are you sure you want me to get into it with your parents?” Minako flashed a grin that promised even death held no fear for her.

“Oh, no.” Saori gasped. “I just, I think they won’t get angry at me if you’re there. They’ll think that it’s poor manners, and they’d wait until you left, but if I’m not around when you go, they can’t.” She held a hand to her heart. “I’m actually doing this. I’m leaving my parents.”

“Yeah you are!”

“I just realized that I realized it and… I am. I’m going to do it.” Saori nodded. “Thank you, Minako. Thank you.”

“This is your last chance to say no,” Minako said, as she hopped onto the train that would take them closer to the dorms and held out her free hand. “’’Cause as soon as these doors close, you’re gonna be so late.”

Saori grabbed Minako’s other hand, hopped onto the train, and kissed her. 

“I’m going home with you.”


End file.
